Street portraits
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Tuesday, January 28th, 2014
These two portraits were made during my lunch break today, I wanted to test out a Polaroid 110B camera that I recently bought. This one has been converted to use instant pack film just like the Fujiroids that I enjoy using so much. This camera has a rangefinder for focussing which I’m not a big fan of but that’s how it is. I wanted to see if the rangefinder and lens were calibrated so I needed some test subjects and fortunately for me Amber and Freddie (who I’ve photographed before) came along. To eliminate camera shake I decided to set the camera on a tripod and I used a cable release to trip the shutter. So far so good, everything seems to be working. The interesting thing about these two shots is the exposure used is exactly the same (1/125th F4.7) with the lens wide open, the only thing that changed is the lens to subject distance. Look at the difference in depth of field when I focussed closer on Amber than I did Freddie.
[Tech info:] Polaroid Pathfinder 110B camera, Enna Werk Munchen Ennit 127mm/f4.7 lens, Fuji FP-100C pack film (expired 2007).
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits, students | No Responses »
Tags: 110B, film, fujiroid, oxford, people, polaroid, portraits, students
Sunday, January 12th, 2014
These shots are from a couple of shoots that I did towards the end of 2012 (oct/nov) that I don’t think I posted before. I’ve always liked how these turned out so here they are. The shots of Helen were made with window light (I was backed up right against it) that was controlled with curtains to create a strip softbox kind of light. The shoot with Jake was done around town on a bright sunny day but I was able to find some nice bounced light to use.
[Tech info:] Helen: Mamiya 645 1000s, 80/1.9, loaded with Kodak Portra 800Z (expired). Jake: Pentax 67, 105/2.4, loaded with Fuji 400H (expired).
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 645, 6x7, film, mamiya universal, oxford, pentax, people, portraits, students
Monday, January 6th, 2014
Here are some behind the scenes shots of an episode of Endeavour that was being filmed on the streets of Oxford last November. From what I saw this is going to be an excellent episode. There were mods and rockers, fake fog, cool cars and tons of atmosphere. I’m not going to give any details away of what I saw being filmed but I will say that the scene with the bus driving through the fog was a real joy to see, it felt like being inside a movie. I really like how the colours have turned out in these shots especially as I was using daylight balanced film in conditions that were mostly lit by yellow street lights. Most of the exposures were made at 1/15th or less and I just guessed a lot of the exposures because of the huge contrast between the shadows and the street lights, it’s amazing how well colour negative film handles it all with ease.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, 50/1.4D lens loaded with Fuji 400 Press film (expired). Processed and scanned at ASDA in Swindon.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Street portraits | 2 Responses »
Tags: asda, c41, endeavour, film, filming, fm2, fuji, oxford, people, tv
Saturday, January 4th, 2014
Last year I bought a random lot of cameras at auction and among them was a waterproof Nikon compact film camera. Keen to test it out I waited for some very wet weather and in October we got some so I went out during my lunch hour to shoot the first test roll through it and here are some of the results.
[Tech info:] Nikon AW compact camera loaded with Ilford XP2 film, processed and scanned at ASDA in Swindon.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Street portraits | 1 Response »
Tags: asda, black&white, film, nikon, oxford, rain, waterproof, xp2
Monday, December 23rd, 2013
Here are some more shots from day two of the recent Endeavour filming in Oxford. This episode looks like it will be very exciting. It’s hard to make out in the bus picture but Colin Dexter is making a cameo appearance, he’s sitting next to the window on the lower level, first window from the right.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex Automat 3.5 loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400, processed in Kodak HC110 (1+31) for 7:30.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, endeavour, film, filming, hc110, oxford, portraits, rolleiflex, Tri-X
Saturday, December 21st, 2013
The Endeavour film crew were back in Oxford for a couple of days at the end of last month and I managed to fit in a quick bit of behind the scenes photography during my lunch break and after work. On the first day the weather was really cold which is why you can see the supporting actors dressed in warm coats. For the night time part of the shoot there was a smoke machine wafting in fake fog which really added to the atmosphere. I’m really looking forward to seeing these episodes next year.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex Automat 3.5, loaded with Kodak TMAX 400 film, processed in Kodak HC110 (1+31) for 5mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits | 4 Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, endeavour, film, filming, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, tmax, tv
Tuesday, November 12th, 2013
These guys need no introduction as they feature fairly regularly on my blog, Clements & Church, the Oxford tailors. They’re some of the sharpest dressed guys in Oxford and as I pass their shop on Little Clarendon Street during my lunch time photo walk to and from town I tend to stop by there to shoot a bit of film with whatever camera I happen to have on me at the time. They’re always friendly, generous with their time and happy to chat so if you’re ever passing that way pop in and tell them you saw them on my blog.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, 50/1.4D lens, loaded with Fuji Press 400 film (expired). Dev & scan by ASDA Swindon. (Thanks Simon for your speedy service).
Posted in Fashion, film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits, Street style | 2 Responses »
Tags: film, fm2, hawkeye, kodak, oxford, people, portraits, tailors
Monday, November 4th, 2013
A friend of mine (Ewan) from school has made his first feature length movie and during a visit to see him in Brighton I was treated to a private screening at a local cinema. In order to raise some funding to complete the film Ewan started a Kickstarter project to which I contributed and as a result I was listed in the thank you’s at the end of the movie. It was very cool to see my name up on a cinema screen! I travelled down on one evening and left to come home pretty much 24 hours later. The weather was mostly overcast with some rain so I didn’t manage to do a whole lot of photography but I did do a little. We had some late afternoon sun which was nice but by that time we were heading back home for dinner so I didn’t manage to photograph the sunset. The shots below are all from the same roll of film.
Here’s the IMDB page for Ewan’s movie Nightmare Hunters
[Tech info:] Mamiya C330f, 80mm/2.8 loaded withKodak Portra 400VC (expired), developed & scanned by Ag photolab
Posted in film, People, Portrait, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, brighton, c330, film, people, Portra, portraits
Sunday, October 27th, 2013
There’s something that just feels right about photographing behind-the-scenes pictures of a tv show set in the 1960’s with a camera that is from the 1960’s. These shots are the entire contents of my first roll of film last Sunday morning when the Endeavour film crew were in town shooting the second episode of four new ones that will be broadcast next spring. The episode title of this one is Nocturne so keep an eye out for some of these smartly dressed supporting actors. Just as I was getting going with my photography rain stopped play and I had to head for shelter in the Covered Market. The photographer is not part of the filming but he just happens to be one of my favourite Oxford street photographers and we bumped into each other completely by chance and had a nice chat while it poured down with rain. Shortly after that the film crew relocated to Exeter College gardens where they managed to film a little more before the sky opened up again and they stopped for lunch. I did manage to shoot another half a roll, those shots to follow soon.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F Zeiss Planar loaded with Kodak Tri-X 400, processed in HC110 dilution b for 7:30.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, endeavour, film, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, rolleiflex, Tri-X, tv
Saturday, October 26th, 2013
All of these shots are from the same roll of Kodak Colorplus 200 film that has been sitting in my fridge for many months since I shot it. I’m not sure when these images are from, my best guess is April or May this year. Kodak Colorplus is the first film that I saw stocked in Poundland Oxford when it first opened in the Westgate shopping centre and I was so excited to see it for £1 a roll that I cleared the shelf. It didn’t seem to be stocked for long and was replaced by Agfa Vista 200. I like the look of this Colorplus film and have had nice results from processing it myself. Some things have changed since I shot these pictures, the motorbike window display was in Shepherd & Woodward, Aubin & Wills are no longer on the High Street and Richard has moved from the Oxford branch of Clements & Church to the Leamington Spa branch.
[Tech info:] Nikon F90, 50/1.4 lens (shots of Tailor’s Richard & Nick with 28mm/2.8), Kodak Colorplus film, dev & scan by ASDA in Swindon.
Posted in film, Oxford, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: asda, colorplus, f90, film, kodak, nikon, oxford, people, portraits
Saturday, October 19th, 2013
I had to scan one of my Oxford shots for someone that wanted to produce some posters of it and while I was looking through my archives I decided to scan some other shots to make a ‘blast from the past’ post. These are all shot on transparency/slide film which was hand processed in the lab I used to work at from the late 80’s to early 90’s. Top right (both matriculation shots) and bottom right are from 1989 and shot on Kodak Ektachrome 64 film, I don’t have any other dates recorded but I think the rest are from the early 1990’s with the Encaenia procession being the latest, probably 1998 and possibly on Fuji Velvia.
The choir singing at the top of Magdalen Tower was on May morning during a perfect sunrise and the shot of the crowd below is from the same day circa 1992. The bottom right shot of the student covered in food and shaving foam was the end of a series that I shot of him after he had finished his finals exams and headed towards the Kings Arms pub along Queens Lane. It’s a great series of shots showing all of the various foods that were poured over him by his friends that had Tesco carrier bags full of stuff. Not much has changed in 24 years except now students can get fined if they’re caught, not so back in 1989. Something that is amazing to me is when I look back at most of these pictures the memories come flooding back of when I made them but when looking through much more recent digital photography my mind goes blank.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2 and N90 cameras.
Posted in film, Oxford, Street portraits, students | 2 Responses »
Tags: 35mm, e6, film, nikon, oxford, people, students
Tuesday, October 15th, 2013
These are shots from a new type of film that I’ve been testing recently, Kodak Hawkeye traffic surveillance film and so far I really love the results. All of these are from the same roll shot mostly during my lunch hour with a few frames shot after work. You can see leaves on the ground which signifies the end of summer and a change in the light and weather. I’ve seen lots of great results with this film shot in sunny conditions but I intend to test it further in all sorts of light which is why I tried to keep things varied on this roll.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2 with 50/1.4 lens, loaded with Kodak Hawkeye film (expired 2011), dev & scan by ASDA in Swindon.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: film, fm2, hawkeye, oxford, people, portraits
